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Case studies of arts organizations leveraging technology through new and novel approaches, research updates from AMTLab contributors, and monthly summaries of technological happenings in the arts management world.

Every arts manager has a
to-do list. It could be in an electronic document, a daily planner, or on a
series of post-it notes. But what happens when one to-do list isn’t enough?
What transpires when you need to-do lists for all the individual items on your to-do list? Furthermore, what
about an entire department? How does a team fare when a project becomes an
unmanageable web of tasks with seemingly no beginning and no end?

Enter Asana, a project
management application launched in 2011. The name comes from Sanskrit, where it
relates to yoga practice and is often used to describe more meditative poses. Co-creator
Dustin Moskovitz (one of the early creators of Facebook) told Bloomberg
BusinessWeek, “Companies
need ‘a single version of the truth’ about what everyone is doing.” Asana sets
out to do just that – create a home base for projects, where team members can
check in on progress, create tasks, and communicate with each other.

An Asana user first creates a “team,” and can then create any number of individual
projects.

Screen shot of one project on Asana.

From there, each task in a
project can be broken down into another series of tasks, each with its own due
date, primary contact, and description.

A screenshot of one individual task that has been
expanded into multiple tasks with multiple due dates.

Asana’s features are
fairly self-explanatory. Every project or task can be easily manipulated, and
there is an expansive guide
to answer any and all questions. However, those looking for a more customized
program may not be satisfied with Asana; there is no way to manipulate the
source code. With such heavy limitations on customizability, Asana really must
be used as is. In addition, Asana does create the possibility of
over-complication. When every project can be broken down into infinite parts,
some efficiency may be lost along the way.

While a nonprofit discount is not available for
Asana’s premium plans, a free account
can have an unlimited number of teams with up to 15 members each. Each team can
also have an unlimited number of projects and tasks. For smaller nonprofits
with smaller staffs, an entire department could potentially function on a free
Asana account.

In the arts management
world, every project contains a series of ever-moving parts. To manage all of
these parts simultaneously, Asana is an exceptional solution.